Breeding Chinese Hamsters ♥️

Breeding Chinese Hamsters ♥️

The Chinese Hamster becomes sexually mature at about 5 weeks of age.

Breeding Chinese Hamsters can be a little tricky. Mature females can be highly aggressive to the males and can cause them serious injury.

There are a number of ways to get around this:

Introduce a male and female pup to each other by the time that they are 5 weeks old, and let them grow up together. A number of breeders have had considerable success using this method.

Introduce a younger female to an older male. In this situation (in general- it doesn’t always work) the male will be dominant.

If a female has already had a litter place her with the male on the day of her season. Females come into season every four days and come into season straight after having their litters, so their season can be accurately worked out.

It is best to introduce the hamsters on neutral ground or in the male’s cage – never introduce them in the female’s cage as this could lead to serious fighting.

Once a female has mated her gestation period is 18-21 days.

Once the female is pregnant she can become highly aggressive to the male.

If the hamster owner wants to try and keep the breeding pair together, then plenty of hiding places should be provided so that the male can get out of the way of his mate.

The female only shows her pregnancy a few days before she is due to give birth.

When she does show she will look as though she has swallowed a barrel!!!

Female Chinese Hamsters give birth to 2-7 naked, blind pups. The female will come into season again a few hours after birth, so if another litter is not wanted the male should be removed before the birth.

The young pups develop very quickly. They begin to develop their fur coats at about five days. By fourteen days the pups are miniatures of their parents and are eating and drinking independently.
The male pups should be separated from their mother and sisters at about three and a half to four weeks old.

The female pups can stay with their mothers until they are found new homes.
The pups can be nervous to start with, but get used to handling very quickly.

The pups are like quicksilver at first so it may be wise to handle them in or over their cage until they are used to the experience.

Chinese Hamsters are unpredictable towards their own kind.

They are highly territorial, particularly in the case of the females.

However, despite this, as well as being kept as a solitary animal, the Chinese Hamster can be kept in single sex or breeding pairs, or single sex groups.

Some breeders have also kept them in colonies.
If these hamsters are kept in pairs or groups the owner must keep an eye out at all times for aggression.

Squabbles can often be heard within the pairs or groups as individuals decide to argue about a sunflower seed or bit of space.

However, if the hamster owner discovers cuts on their hamsters then the animals should be separated immediately.

Some will be able to live in groups of 3/4/5 or more males. Some hamsters will not live with another hamster as they want their own space.

Like people, these animals are complete individuals…..some like company, and some very definitely want to live alone. There are no hard and fast rules with this.

Hamster owners can try to keep the Chinese Hamster in pairs or groups, but should be prepared to keep the animals in separate cages if the need arises.

LIFESPAN.

The Chinese Hamster generally lives longer than a number of other species of hamster.
On average they can live two and a half to three years, but can live to four years.

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